CEROCOMÆ, MYLABRES AND ZONITES

Too Long; Didn't Read

All has not been told concerning the Meloidæ, those strange parasites, some of which, the Sitares and the Oil-beetles, attach themselves, like the tiniest of Lice, to the fleece of various Bees to get themselves carried into the cell where they will destroy the egg and afterwards feed upon the ration of honey. A most unexpected discovery, made a few hundred yards from my door, has warned me once again how dangerous it is to generalize. To take it for granted, as the mass of data hitherto collected seemed to justify us in doing, that all the Meloidæ of our country usurp the stores of honey accumulated by the Bees, was surely a most judicious and natural generalization. Many have accepted it without hesitation; and I for my part was one of them. For on what are we to base our conviction when we imagine that we are stating a law? We think to take our stand upon the general; and we plunge into the quicksands of error. And behold, the law of the Meloidæ has to be struck off the statutes, a fate common to many others, as this chapter will prove.